China: Golden Week marks ‘back to normal’ post-Covid – 09/30/2023 – World

Golden Week is starting in China, with train stations, airports and roads packed since Friday (29). It is one of three long holidays with the same name in the country, the others being at the beginning of the year and in May.

The main means of transport is the train, with the state-owned Chinese Railways projecting 190 million trips, compared to 139 million in the last year-end Golden Week before the pandemic. The Chinese Ministry of Transport also expects a record in road traffic, with 66 million trips.

The civil aviation agency projected 21 million passengers, including domestic and international flights, stimulated by recent actions such as the release of tourist groups by Beijing and the end of visa requirements for Chinese in Thailand. Apart from Bangkok, the main destination abroad is Seoul, South Korea.

Among the internal preferences is Hangzhou, where the Asian Games are taking place, which run until the 8th. For Beijing, the capital, the projection is for 13 million visitors throughout the week, 22% more than in 2019. And it grew ten times the demand for Urumqi, in Xinjiang, according to the Tongcheng tourism agency.

For historic Chengdu, in the center of the country, 25 million are expected. The race for air tickets has skyrocketed prices, according to Bloomberg: tickets from Beijing to Chengdu went from 680 yuan (R$470) on September 22nd to 1,800 yuan (R$1,240) on the 29th. From Beijing to Sydney, Australia , the value doubled.

A Sheet heard from four Chinese about plans for Golden Week. Cathy, the Western name of one of them, said she would not travel, preferring to stay at home in Changzhou. Eddie Wu, on the other hand, was already in Taizhou on Tuesday (26), a city with a beach and mountains.

It was by train. “We try to avoid the crowds,” says he, who is a business consultant. “A lot of people travel, crowding tourist destinations, trains and highways, so the company did this: we were able to leave work a few days before everyone else, to return a little earlier.”

Lilly had no problems making her trip with her family possible. “We’re going to Nanjing, visit my parents and do some sightseeing there,” says she, who is a human resources manager at an international trade company. “As there are many trains between Shanghai and Nanjing, it was easy to purchase.”

She says, however, that the situation is not so easy for everyone. “I heard from a colleague of mine at work that she would also like to visit her parents, in a city further north, in Jiangsu province, but tickets were difficult to find.”

Sam Chen, from Lilly’s purchasing department, said he would “embark on an autonomous leisure trip, opting to drive rather than rely on public transportation.” He recalled that this is the second most popular holiday in China, after the one at the beginning of the year.

“It’s not the first time, I’ve been taking short car trips since last year,” he says. “From a lifestyle perspective, I believe China has recovered to pre-pandemic levels. Cinemas and restaurants are packed with customers.”

This Golden Week is seen as a test for returning to normal life. “Anyone in Chinese society feels that anticipation has formed a fever,” said an editorial in the Huanqiu/Global Times, linked to the Communist Party, assessing that “the busy scenes will help increase confidence in the economy.”

For Wu, the change has already happened. “I also traveled last year for Golden Week, before it officially ended [das restrições]. And this year I think everything is as it was before the pandemic. I can’t tell any difference, my experience is that everything is back to normal.”

Lilly has been traveling regularly since March, for work, and has the same assessment of the country’s outlook. “I feel like everything is back to normal,” she says.